MARTIN COUNTY — Though crime during the first half of 2017 was down in Florida, Martin County experienced a sharp increase, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's uniform crime report released Tuesday.

Across the county, measured crimes are up by almost 30 percent compared with January through June 2016.

For the Martin County Sheriff's Office, that number is even higher — 37.3 percent — according to the report.

Compared with last year, the Sheriff's Office saw increases in rapes, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larceny and motor vehicle theft. The only categories that went down were murders, which decreased from three to one, and robberies — there were 26 in the first half of 2016, and this year there were 25.

Sheriff William Snyder said he believes most of the crime in the county is not committed by Martin County residents.

"The pressure from the criminal world from south of us … has been unrelenting," Snyder said. "Every night, we find them in our county breaking into cars and stealing engines on boats."

Snyder said he thinks about 80 percent of crime committed in Martin County is done by criminals from the south. He added 86 percent of cars stolen in Martin County are recovered south of the county line.

"That was sort of the canary in the coal mine," Snyder said.

In all, 48 cars were reported stolen in early 2017, according to the report.

"My takeaway is it makes me angry and frustrated that we have figured out how to deal with our own crime, but we get this constant pressure from the criminal element south of us," Snyder said.

During the first half of 2017, the Sheriff's Office recorded the most rapes in the past five years; 29 were reported in early 2017, while 22 were reported during the same period in 2016.

Snyder said most of the rapes were committed by men known to the survivor.

Larcenies have increased in the past year by 187, according to the report. Snyder attributes that sharp increase to the growing opioid epidemic.

"People who abuse opioids are not working, and where they’re getting that drug money is by stealing it," Snyder said. "We think that drug abuse and the opioid epidemic is directly correlated to all crimes, especially larceny crimes."

The Sheriff's Office has been taking steps to better identify criminals who come from southern counties, the sheriff said. Snyder has been working with state law enforcement to move Martin County out of the Orlando law enforcement region and into the southern region.

The Sheriff's Office also has been working with the Southern Florida Task Force in tactical surveillance. The Sheriff's Office has begun to use hidden cameras more, but even that presents its own issues with traveling criminals.

"(Criminals) are not identified because no one knows them," Snyder said.

The Stuart Police Department saw an overall increase of crime by 4.7 percent in the first half of 2017, according to the report.

Though the department saw decreases in rape, robbery and aggravated assault, it saw increases in burglary and larceny. The same number of motor vehicle thefts and murders were reported as last year, according to the report.

The Stuart Police Department did not issue a statement and was not available to comment because Chief David Dyess had not yet seen the report as of Tuesday afternoon.

Sewall's Point Police Department also saw in increase of crime by about 33 percent, totaling 12 reported crimes in the measured categories in early 2017. In early 2016, the department saw an 80 percent increase of crime, or a total of nine crimes in reported categories.

This year marked the most crime in reported categories in Sewall's Point over the past five years, with two burglaries and 10 larcenies.

"We’re not taking it laying down," Snyder said. "We don't accept this as the new norm."